With the defeat of Taliban in Afghanistan we severely weakened al-Qaida and we reminded all potential terrorists of the consequences of attacking the United States of America. We also removed an extremely brutal regime, a fact much appreciated by a majority of the men, and certainly almost all of the women of Afghanistan.

We were winning the war on terrorism and we had the begrudging respect of most of the world (begrudging respect is about the best we can hope for from a jealous world).

Although he had not announced it President Bush had already determined that Saddam Hussein had to go, but why? Saddam was certainly an evil dictator, but there are plenty of evil dictators around, some of them are on friendly terms with our government.

With his “Axis of Evil” comment the President indicated his belief that Saddam was connected to the terrorist movement. The “Axis of Evil” statement was troubling in two respects; first it was just plain wrong; Iran and Iraq are enemies, and have been for a long time. The administration offered little evidence that North Korea had significant contacts with Iraq or Iran. Worse, the “Axis of Evil” statement pulled the rug from under democratically elected Iranian moderates in their struggle against Iranian hardliners who are a genuine threat to American interests.

The goal of radical Islamic terrorists is to overthrow secular governments and replace them with Islamic states. Although Saddam genuflects to Islam he fools no one, he is a godless man. As the head of a secular government in a Muslim nation he is the enemy of the radical political Islamic movement. That is why we gave him military aid during his war with Iran. Indeed Saddam regularly jailed and executed advocates of an Islamic state in Iraq.

During the invasion of Iraq we found a grand total of one foreign terrorist cell in Iraq, and that was in the northern no fly zone. Say what you will about the evil dictator but you must admit he did an admirable job of keeping al-Qaida out of Iraq.

If Saddam had weapons of mass destruction he certainly would not use them against the United States, he more than anyone, was aware of the consequences that would bring. He certainly would not give them to Islamic terrorists who were his enemies.

Fortunately for the Bush administration, Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. The invasion was the only possible scenario that would cause the Iraqis to use the alleged weapons against the United States. Also in the chaos created by the invasion it would have been quite possible for the weapons to fall into terrorist hands. Perhaps the terrorists did get the weapons and nobody is telling us about it.

The Bush administration disregarded the basic fact that Saddam Hussein and Islamic terrorists were enemies. Instead they started with the assumption that Saddam had to go, and then they interpreted intelligence reports to support their assumption rather than using intelligence to make informed decisions.

President Bush apparently believed that we would receive a comparable level of appreciation and support from the Iraqi people as we received in Afghanistan, inexplicably forgetting about the deaths, deprivations and humiliation caused by two major invasions and twelve years of harsh economic sanctions. Sure a lot of Iraqis are glad that Saddam is out of power but there is no reason to believe that free and fair elections in Iraq will yield a government friendly to the United States.

The results: Iraq is a mess and will likely be a hotbed of terrorist activity for decades, even if the new Iraqi government is friendly towards US interests. A civil war is a very real possibility and no one knows what the results would be. The world community expects us to stay in Iraq, with very little help, however long it takes to prevent a civil war.

In Afghanistan remnants of the Taliban have been emboldened by the fact that most of our resources are tied up in Iraq. Worldwide, the flames of radical political Islam have been fanned, undoing the progress made by our victory in Afghanistan. The war has been an international embarrassment; we have lost considerable prestige and influence plus resentment towards the United States has increased.

The cost: We have lost over 500 of America’s finest, 3,000 have been injured. Over 90 of our allies have fallen. We pray that the carnage will soon end.

Billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted and no end is in sight. The deficit is a major threat to our economy. The rapidly growing red ink is the result of tax cuts chiefly in the upper income ranges and a counterproductive war.

We have made a commitment to help the Iraqi people replace Saddam’s regime with a democratic government. The Iraqi people have paid for this commitment with their suffering at the hands of both Saddam Hussein and the government of the United States of America. To run out on this commitment would surely make a bad situation worse.

Perhaps the Iraqi people will make the most of their opportunity for democracy. If so, we will be able to say that our sons and daughters did not die in vain. Looking at this from purely American interests this war is a disaster; it has destabilized the region and increased the threat of terrorism. We cannot afford more gross misjudgments in the conduct of foreign policy. Fortunately in November we will have the opportunity to make our own regime change.

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Thank you, Greg Wasleski